This week it’s primal cooking at its most seductive—over an open fire. Our guest is William Rubel, author of The Magic of Fire. He leaves us with a recipe for Lamb Kabobs to get us started. The Sterns have found a beautiful woman who makes beautiful food at Café Poca Cosa in Tucson, Arizona.
Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanza, we're here to help with guest Paula Wolfert, author of The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen: Recipes for the Passionate Cook. Paula has fabulous and imaginative do-ahead recipes that will please everyone at your holiday table.
The baking season is here, the oven is cranked and we have recipes for you from the great bakers of Paris via Dorie Greenspan. Dorie's book, Paris Sweets: Great Desserts from the City's Best Pastry Shops brings together her best recipe finds, including Korova Cookies and the extravaganza called Opera Cake.
This week we'll explore the practice of geophagy, the eating of substances like soil, chalk, and clay as a cultural custom or for dietary or subsistence reasons, with our guest Susan Allport, author of The Primal Feast: Food, Sex, Foraging and Love. Evidence of geophagy has been found at archaeological sites and still occurs in much of the world (including the United States) today. Listen in on a fascinating discussion.
David Rosengarten, whose new book, It's All American Food, joins us this year for our annual Thanksgiving show. David is a gifted cook who's always looking for great flavors from little work. TheThanksgiving dinner menu he shares with us has an interesting twist and it's all very doable.
This week we'll explore the often-confusing world of olive oil with Deborah Krasner. With extra-virgin oils going for $37 dollars a quart and higher, we want to know what the oil tastes like before shelling out such an outrageous sum. For her new book, The Flavors of Olive Oil: A Tasting Guide and Cookbook, Deborah taste tested 150 different oils. She'll tell us about three oils she keeps in her pantry, then leave us with a "Twelve-Minute Dinner Menu" that highlights these healthy oils.
This week we’re bringing you a show we recorded live at The Gourmet Institute in New York City. Guests include, Ruth Reichl, editor in chief of Gourmet magazine; Gael Greene, former restaurant critic of New York Magazine; Daniel Boulud, chef/owner, Café Boulud; and the newest television star, Rocco DiSpirito, chef/owner of Union Pacific and Rocco's 22nd Street.
Rolling Stone magazine calls Jamie Oliver, known by Food Network devotees as The Naked Chef, a "hot foodie." But there's another side to this tousled British charmer that viewers rarely see, and it's related to his new mission in life. Tune in to hear Jamie give us the scoop, then try his outrageous recipe for the World's Best Baked Onions from his new book, Happy Days with the Naked Chef.
It may occur in 1 in 200 people, it runs in families, women have it more than men, and those with it probably have a superior memory. It's synesthesia, and research neurologist Dr. Richard Cytowic will explain this fascinating peculiarity in the brain that results in the involuntary joining of two or more senses. If you think a slice of apple pie tastes like an octagon, tune in for some explanations.
For some of us, a bit of fine, luxurious chocolate can soothe our stress or brighten a dreary day. But how many of us know that our Godiva bar started out as a goopy white substance from the insides of an ugly cacao pod? Maricel Presilla, author of The New Taste of Chocolate: A Cultural and Natural History of Cacao, shares some history and cultural lore about our antidote of choice and leaves us with two recipes: Kekehi Cacao-Chile Balls and Maya-Mediterranean Chocolate Rice Pudding.
We're traveling and eating out all over the map this week. Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page, authors of Chef's Night Out, reveal where America's top chefs eat when they have a night off. One goes looking for a hot dog with a "caviar crunch," another wants a better meal in a Chinese restaurant and knows how to get it. Tuck the chefs' "bests" list in your carry-on the next time you travel. From sushi to hamburgers and oysters to pizza, you'll be guaranteed good eating.
This week we're looking at where our health and nutrition information comes from with Dr. Marion Nestle, professor and chair of New York University's Department of Nutrition and Food Studies. Dr. Nestle has served as nutrition advisor to the USDA and the FDA and is the author of Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health. She suggests some Internet sites that offer help in determining who is funding the health and nutrition research we hear about in the news.
This week it's an antidote to the dog days of summer from Raghavan Iyer, a native of Bombay and author of The Turmeric Trail: Recipes and Memories from an Indian Childhood. Raghavan knows it's all about what you eat. He'll share a cooling menu that includes Corn with Roasted Chiles and Coconut Milk, Chaat, and Green Papaya Salad, all inspired by Bombay street food.
This week Jayne Hurley, co-author of Restaurant Confidential and senior nutritionist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, joins us for talk about the best and the worst fast-food picks. We'll learn why Burger King is out and Wendy's is in when it comes to healthy choices for eating on the run. And let's face it: Many of us occasionally do the drive-through.
This week is a special broadcast taped live at the Aspen Food and Wine Classic. Lynne is joined onstage at the Historic Wheeler Opera House in Aspen, Colorado with a handful of culinary luminaries - including Mario Batali, Josh Wesson, Chef Marcus Samuelsson, and pastry wizard Jacques Torres.
Film director, novelist, and playwright Nora Ephron, whose latest book is Crazy Salad, is a woman who loves to cook and have friends in to eat. Everyone has a great time at her house and her dinner parties are legendary. She'll tell us how she stopped worrying, broke a bunch of rules, and learned to enjoy entertaining.
Lynne talks with Dr. Andrew Weil, the maverick medical doctor who's become a renowned authority on integrated healing. He shares three simple things we can all do to be healthier, along with a recipe for Mexican Chicken Soup from his latest book, The Healthy Kitchen: Recipes for a Better Body, Life and Spirit.
French chef-turned-barbecue expert Steven Raichlen is back with some off-the-wall grilling techniques from his new book Beer-Can Chicken. Whether it's in a leaf or in the coals, on a stick or under a brick, Steve inspires us to fire up the grill and start cooking. His recipe for Basic Beer-Can Chicken gets us started.
Elizabeth Schneider, a woman who knows vegetables from the seed to the plate, joins us this week with simple ideas for good, healthy eating from her new book Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini: The Essential Reference. Elizabeth has given over the past decade to gathering every shred of information on produce—the best varieties to buy and the best ways to cook them. Her recipes for Baked Scented Beets and Greens and Herbed Carrot and Leek Chunks, Oven Steamed are inspired.
Dr. Kelly Brownell, director of the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders, joins us this week for a look at how TV commercials shape our eating habits. His take on how advertising may be affecting our health raises all sorts of questions. Should junk food be controlled like alcohol and tobacco ads?
Coffee buyer and master roaster Kevin Knox, co-author of Coffee Basics, joins us with a guide to roasts and brewing methods, tells us what the pros are drinking now, and reveals a few surprises, too. To top it off, Lynne's decadent Espresso-Ricotta Cream with Chocolate Espresso Sauce is the perfect partner for a rich cup of joe.
This week it's a look at why we prefer some foods more than others with Dr. Julie Menella of the Monell Chemical Senses Center. Dr. Menella studies taste preferences in infants and explains why one kid won't eat broccoli and another hates carrots.
We're eating Appalachian this week with food writers Ted and Matt Lee, two brothers who rented a pickup truck and headed for the back roads of Eastern Kentucky in search of the elusive pawpaw fruit. Along the way, they discovered that good food is more about human ingenuity than rich resources. Read more about their adventure in the article, "On the Appalachian Trail" in the March 2002 issue of Food & Wine magazine.
Can you be addicted to sugar? We'll find out when Robin Edelman joins us on this week's show. Robin is the nutrition editor for Eating Well magazine and author of the article "Sweet Addiction" in the Fall 2002 issue.
This week Lynne talks with Paul Draper, CEO of Ridge Vineyards, and the winemaker who elevated California Zinfandel to world-class status by shunning market-driven, high-tech methods in favor of ancient techniques. The resulting wines are simply the essence of refinement, intensity, and complexity.
Art historian Carolin Young, author of Apples of Gold, Settings of Silver, takes us back to 1753 and a seduction supper with Casanova himself. In those days, romantic dinners were an art form, and this one has an interesting twist. It's all about who is seducing whom.
Restaurant critic John Heckathorn takes us to Honolulu, one of Lynne's favorite food cities, for an insider's dine-around and guide to eating like a local. In a town notorious for high prices, John's advice and restaurant picks guarantee great eating for little money.
We'll take a look at small-batch bourbons with Kentucky bourbon maker Frederick Booker Noe, the grandson of Jim Beam and one of the pioneers in this new take on American whiskey. Forget bourbon and soda—this is stuff you'll want to leisurely swirl and sniff before taking a sip. Some experts claim these whiskeys are right up there with the great brandies and single-malt scotches.
Chef and author Anthony Bourdain described his first book, Kitchen Confidential, as an "obnoxious and over-testosteroned" account of his life in the restaurant business. Still, the book remained on the New York Timesbestseller list for weeks. Now the food world's outrageous bad boy is at it again with his new book, A Cook's Tour, the chronicle of his planet-circling jaunt in search of the ultimate meal. Mr. Bourdain likes his adventure with a generous dose of risk and an occasional touch of the bizarre—like dodging Cambodian minefields to have cocktails in Khmer Rouge territory and eating poisonous blowfish in Japan.